In all four gospel accounts Pilate lobbies for Jesus to be spared his eventual fate of execution, and acquiesces only when the crowd refused to relent. He thus seeks to avoid personal
responsibility for the death of Jesus. In the
Gospel of Matthew, Pilate washes his hands to show that he was not responsible for the execution of Jesus and reluctantly sends him to his death.[7]
The Gospel of Mark, depicting Jesus as innocent of plotting against the
Roman Empire, portrays Pilate as reluctant to execute Jesus.[7]
In the Gospel of Luke, Pilate not only agrees that Jesus did not conspire against Rome, but
Herod Antipas, the
Tetrarch
of Galilee, also finds nothing treasonable in Jesus' actions.[7]
In the Gospel of John, Pilate states "I find no guilt in him [Jesus]," and he asks the Jews if Jesus should be released from custody.[8]

Scholars have long debated how to interpret Pilate's portrayal in the sources. The significance of the
Pilate Stone, an artifact discovered in 1961 that names Pontius Pilate, is similarly debated by scholars.[9][10]

Limestone block discovered in 1961 with Pilate's tribute in Latin to Tiberius. The words
[...]TIVS PILATVS[...]
can be clearly seen on the second line.

The first physical evidence relating to Pilate was discovered in 1961, when a block of limestone, the
Pilate Stone, was found in the Roman theatre at
Caesarea Maritima, the capital of the province of
Judaea (Iudaea). Bearing a damaged dedication by Pilate of a
Tiberieum,[11]
the dedication states that he was [...]ECTVS IUDA[...]
(usually read as praefectus Iudaeae), that is, prefect of Judaea. The early governors of Judaea were of prefect rank, the later were of procurator rank, beginning with
Cuspius Fadus
in AD 44. The inscription was discovered by a group led by Antonio Frova and has been dated to AD 26–37. The inscription is currently housed in the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem, while a replica stands at Caesarea.[12]

Pilate is mentioned by name and rank in a document by the 1st century Roman historian,
Tacitus,[13]
and by 1st century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus.[14]

Beyond this, little is known of Pilate and there are no formal records of his birth or early life.

Eusebius, quoting early apocryphal accounts, stated that Pilate suffered misfortune in the reign of
Caligula
(AD 37–41), was exiled to Gaul and eventually killed himself there in Vienne.[15]
The 10th century historian Agapius of Hierapolis, in his
Universal History, says that Pilate killed himself during the first year of Caligula's reign, in AD 37/38.[16]

There is an ancient tradition linking his birthplace with the small village of
Bisenti,
Samnite territory, in today's
Abruzzo
region of Central Italy.[15]
There are ruins of a Roman house in Bisenti alleged to be the house of Pontius Pilate.[17]
There is also a tradition in Scotland that Pilate was born in Fortingall, a small village in the Perthshire Highlands.[18]
Other places such as Tarragona
in Spain and Forchheim
in Germany have been proposed as Pilate's birthplace, but it is more likely that he was a Roman citizen, born in central Italy.[19][20][21]
Another legend places his death at Mount Pilatus, in Switzerland.

The title used by the governors of the region varied over the period of the
New Testament. When
Samaria,
Judea
proper and Idumea
were first amalgamated into the Roman Judaea Province
(which some modern historians spell Iudaea),[23]
from AD 6 to the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt
in 66, officials of the Equestrian order
(the lower rank of governors) governed. They held the Roman title of prefect until Herod Agrippa I
was named King of the Jews
in 41 by Claudius. After Herod Agrippa's death in 44, when Iudaea reverted to direct Roman rule, the governor held the title procurator. When applied to governors, this term
procurator, otherwise used for financial officers, connotes no difference in rank or function from the title known as "prefect".[24]
Contemporary archaeological finds and documents such as the Pilate Inscription from Caesarea attest to the governor's more accurate official title only for the years 6 through 41: prefect. The logical conclusion is that texts that identify Pilate as procurator are more likely following Tacitus or are unaware of the pre-44 practice.

The procurators' and prefects' primary functions were military, but as representatives of the empire they were responsible for the collection of imperial taxes,[25]
and also had limited judicial functions. Other civil administration lay in the hands of local government: the municipal councils or ethnic governments such as—in the district of Judaea and Jerusalem—the Sanhedrin
and its president the High Priest. But the power of appointment of the High Priest resided in the Roman legate of
Syria
or the prefect of Judaea in Pilate's day and until AD 41. For example, Caiaphas
was appointed High Priest of Herod's Temple
by Prefect Valerius Gratus
and deposed by Syrian Legate Lucius Vitellius. Normally, Pilate resided in Caesarea but traveled throughout the province, especially to
Jerusalem, in the course of performing his duties. During the
Passover, a festival of deep national as well as religious significance for the Jews, Pilate, as governor or prefect, would have been expected to be in Jerusalem to keep order. He would not ordinarily be visible to the throngs of worshippers because of the Jewish people's deep sensitivity to their status as a Roman province.[citation needed]

Equestrians such as Pilate could command legionary forces but only small ones, and so in military situations, he would have to yield to his superior, the legate of Syria, who would descend into Palestine with his legions as necessary. As governor of Iudaea, Pilate would have small auxiliary forces of locally recruited soldiers stationed regularly in Caesarea and Jerusalem, such as the
Antonia Fortress, and temporarily anywhere else that might require a military presence. The total number of soldiers at his disposal would have numbered about 3000.[26]

According to the
canonical
Christian Gospels, Pilate presided at the trial of Jesus and, despite stating that he personally found him not guilty of a crime meriting death, sentenced him to be crucified. Pilate is thus a pivotal character in the New Testament accounts of Jesus.

According to the New Testament, Jesus was brought to Pilate by the
Sanhedrin, who had arrested Jesus and questioned him themselves. The Sanhedrin had, according to the Gospels, only been given answers by Jesus that they considered
blasphemous pursuant to Mosaic law, which was unlikely to be deemed a capital offense by Pilate interpreting Roman law.[27]
The Gospel of Luke[28]
records that members of the Sanhedrin then took Jesus before Pilate where they accused him of sedition against Rome by opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar and calling himself a king. Fomenting tax resistance was a capital offense.[29]
Pilate was responsible for imperial tax collections in Judaea. Jesus had asked the tax collector Levi, at work in his tax booth in Capernaum, to quit his post. Jesus also appears to have influenced
Zacchaeus, "a chief tax collector" in Jericho, which is in Pilate's tax jurisdiction, to resign.[30]
Pilate's main question to Jesus was whether he considered himself to be the King of the Jews
in an attempt to assess him as a potential political threat. Mark
in the NIV
translation states: "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "It is as you say", Jesus replied. However, quite a number of other translations render Jesus' reply as variations of the phrase: "Thou sayest it." (King James Version, Mark 15:2); "So you say". (Good News Bible, Mark 15:2). Whatever degree of confirmation modern interpreters would derive from this answer of Jesus, according to the New Testament, it was not enough for Pilate to view Jesus as a real political threat. The chief priests began hurling accusations toward Jesus, yet he remained silent. Pilate asked him why he did not respond to the many charges, and Jesus remained silent, so Pilate was "astonished".

Pilate appears to have been reluctant to allow the crucifixion of Jesus, finding no fault with him. According to Matthew 27:19, even
Pilate's wife
spoke to him on Jesus' behalf. According to the gospels, it was the custom of the Roman governor to release one prisoner at Passover, and Pilate brought out Barabbas, identified by Matthew as a "notorious prisoner" and by Mark as a murderer, and told the crowd to choose between releasing Barabbas or Jesus as per the custom, in the hopes of getting them to request the release of Jesus. However, the crowd demanded the release of Barabbas and said of Jesus, "Crucify him!" In Matthew, Pilate responds, "Why? What evil has he done?" The crowd continued shouting, "Crucify him!"

Pilate ordered a
sign posted above Jesus
on the cross stating "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews" to give public notice of the legal charge against him for his crucifixion. The chief priests protested that the public charge on the sign should read that Jesus claimed
to be King of the Jews. Pilate refused to change the posted charge, saying "What I have written, I have written." ("Quod scripsi, scripsi"). This may have been to emphasize Rome's supremacy in crucifying a Jewish king; it is likely, though, that Pilate was offended by the Jewish leaders using him as a
catspaw
and thus compelling him to sentence Jesus to death contrary to his own will.[31]

The
Gospel of Luke
also reports that such questions were asked of Jesus; in Luke's case it being the priests that repeatedly accused him, though Luke states that Jesus remained silent to such inquisition, causing Pilate to hand Jesus over to the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, namely
Galilee
which was not part of Roman Judea. Although initially excited with curiosity at meeting Jesus, of whom he had heard much, Herod (according to Luke) ended up mocking Jesus
and so sent him back to Pilate. This intermediate episode with Herod is not reported by the other Gospels, which appear to present a continuous and singular trial in front of Pilate. Luke, however, made further reference to this involvement of Herod along with Pilate in Jesus' execution and linked it with the prophecy about the Messianic King found in Psalm 2, as we can read in Luke's other book,
Acts
4:24–28. This could explain why he counted this episode important.

Unlike the
synoptic gospels, the
Gospel of John
gives more detail about that dialogue taking place between Jesus and Pilate. In John, Jesus seems to confirm the fact of his kingship, although immediately explaining, that his "kingdom" was "not of this world"; of far greater importance for the followers of Christ is his own definition of the goal of his ministry on earth
at the time. According to Jesus, as we find it written in John 18:37, Jesus thus describes his mission: "[I] came into the world...to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of
truth
listen to my voice", to which Pilate famously replied, "What is truth?" ("Quid est veritas?") (John 18:38)...

Whatever it be that some modern critics want to deduce from those differences, the end result was the same for Jesus and Pilate, as it was in all the other three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). In the same chapter of John 18 verse 38 (King James Version, compare with other versions) the conclusion Pilate made from this interrogation was: "I find in him no fault at all".

Pilate agrees to condemn Jesus to crucifixion, after the Jewish leaders explained to him that Jesus presented a threat to Roman occupation through his claim to the throne of
King David
as King of Israel in the royal line of David. The crowd in Pilate's courtyard, according to Mark's gospel, were incited by the chief priests to shout against Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew
adds that before condemning Jesus to death, Pilate washes his hands with water in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see you to it."

In all gospel accounts, Pilate is reluctant to condemn Jesus, but is eventually forced to give in when the crowd becomes unruly and the Jewish leaders remind him that Jesus's claim to be king is a challenge to Roman rule and to the
Roman deification of Caesar. Roman magistrates had wide discretion in executing their tasks, and some readers question whether Pilate would have been so captive to the demands of the crowd. Pilate was later recalled to Rome for his harsh treatment of the Jews.[32][33]

Pilate's reluctance to execute Jesus in the gospels has been seen by
Anchor Bible Dictionary
and critical scholars
as reflecting the authors' agenda.[34][35]
It has thus been argued that gospel accounts place the blame on the Jews, not on Rome, in line with the authors' alleged goal of making peace with the Roman Empire and vilifying the Jews.[34][35]

In chronicling the history of
the Roman administrators in Judaea, ancient Jewish writers
Philo
and Josephus
describe some of the other events and incidents that took place during Pilate's tenure. Both report that Pilate repeatedly caused near-insurrections among the Jews because of his insensitivity to Jewish customs.

Josephus notes that while Pilate's predecessors had respected Jewish customs by removing all images and effigies on their standards when entering Jerusalem, Pilate allowed his soldiers to bring them into the city at night. When the citizens of Jerusalem discovered these the following day, they appealed to Pilate to remove the ensigns of Caesar from the city. After five days of deliberation, Pilate had his soldiers surround the demonstrators, threatening them with death, which they were willing to accept rather than submit to desecration of
Mosaic law. Pilate finally removed the images.[36][37]

Philo describes a later, similar incident in which Pilate was chastened by Emperor
Tiberius
after antagonizing the Jews by setting up gold-coated shields in Herod's Palace in Jerusalem. The shields were ostensibly to honor Tiberius, and this time did not contain engraved images. Philo writes that the shields were set up "not so much to honour Tiberius as to annoy the multitude". The Jews protested the installation of the shields at first to Pilate, and then, when he declined to remove them, by writing to Tiberius. Philo reports that upon reading the letters, Tiberius "wrote to Pilate with a host of reproaches and rebukes for his audacious violation of precedent and bade him at once take down the shields and have them transferred from the capital to Caesarea."[38]

Josephus
recounts another incident in which Pilate spent money from the Temple
to build an aqueduct. Pilate had soldiers hidden in the crowd of Jews while addressing them and, when Jews again protested his actions he gave the signal for his soldiers to randomly attack, beat and kill – in an attempt to silence Jewish petitions.[39]

In describing his personality, Philo writes that Pilate had "vindictiveness and furious temper", and was "naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness". He writes that Pilate feared a delegation of the Jews might send to Tiberius protesting the gold-coated shields, because "if they actually sent an embassy they would also expose the rest of his conduct as governor by stating in full the briberies, the insults, the robberies, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty".[38]

Pilate's term as prefect of Judaea ended after an incident recounted by Josephus. A large group of
Samaritans
had been persuaded by an unnamed man to go to Mount Gerizim
in order to see sacred artifacts allegedly buried by Moses. But at a village named Tirathana, before the crowd could ascend the mountain, Pilate sent in "a detachment of cavalry and heavy-armed infantry, who in an encounter with the firstcomers in the village slew some in a pitched battle and put the others to flight. Many prisoners were taken, of whom Pilate put to death the principal leaders and those who were most influential."[40]
The Samaritans then complained to Vitellius, Roman governor of Syria, who sent Pilate to Rome to explain his actions regarding this incident to Tiberius. However, by the time Pilate got to Rome, Tiberius had died.[41]

Little is known about Pilate, but tradition has tried to fill the gap. A body of legend grew up around the dramatic figure of Pontius Pilate, about whom the Christian faithful hungered to learn more than the canonical Gospels revealed.
Eusebius
(Historia Ecclesiae
ii: 7) quotes some early apocryphal accounts that he does not name, which already relate that Pilate fell under misfortunes in the reign of Caligula (37–41), was exiled to
Gaul
and eventually committed suicide there in Vienne.

Other details come from less credible sources. His body, says the
Mors Pilati
("Death of Pilate"), was thrown first into the Tiber, but the waters were so "disturbed by evil spirits" that the body was taken to Vienne and sunk in the
Rhône: a monument at Vienne, called Pilate's tomb, is still to be seen.[42]
As the waters of the Rhone likewise rejected Pilate's corpse, it was again removed and sunk in the lake at Lausanne.[citation needed]
The sequence was a simple way to harmonise conflicting local traditions.

The corpse's final disposition was in a deep and lonely mountain
tarn, which, according to later tradition, was on a mountain, still called
Pilatus
(actually pileatus
or "cloud capped"), overlooking Lucerne. Every
Good Friday, the body is said to reemerge from the waters and wash its hands.

There are many other legends about Pilate in the folklore of Germany, particularly about his birth, according to which Pilate was born in the Franconian city of
Forchheim
or the small village of Hausen
only 5 km away from it. His death was "unusually" dramatised in a medieval mysteryplay cycle
from Cornwall, the Cornish Ordinalia.[citation needed]

Pilate's role in the events leading to the crucifixion lent themselves to melodrama, even tragedy, and Pilate often has a role in medieval
mystery plays.

In the
Eastern Orthodox Church, Pilate's wife
Claudia Procula
is commemorated as a saint,[43]
but not Pilate, because in the Gospel accounts Claudia urged Pilate not to have anything to do with Jesus. In some Eastern Orthodox traditions, Pilate committed suicide out of remorse for having sentenced Jesus to death.

The fragmentary apocryphal
Gospel of Peter
exonerates Pilate of responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus, placing it instead on Herod
and the Jews who, unlike Pilate, refused to "wash their hands". After the soldiers see three men and a cross miraculously walking out of the tomb they report to Pilate who reiterates his innocence: "I am pure from the blood of the Son of God". He then commands the soldiers not to tell anyone what they have seen so that they would not "fall into the hands of the people of the Jews and be stoned".

The 4th century
apocryphal
text that is called the Acts of Pilate
presents itself in a preface (missing in some MSS) as derived from the official acts preserved in the praetorium
at Jerusalem. Though the alleged Hebrew original of the document is attributed to Nicodemus, the title
Gospel of Nicodemus
for this fictional account only appeared in medieval times, after the document had been substantially elaborated. Nothing in the text suggests that it is in fact a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic.

This text gained wide credit in the
Middle Ages, and has considerably affected the legends surrounding the events of the crucifixion, which, taken together, are called the
Passion. Its popularity is attested by the number of languages in which it exists, each of these being represented by two or more variant "editions": Greek (the original), Coptic, Armenian and Latin versions. The Latin versions were printed several times in the 15th and 16th centuries.

One class of the Latin manuscripts contain as an appendix or continuation, the
Cura Sanitatis Tiberii, the oldest form of the
Veronica
legend.

The
Acts of Pilate
consist of three sections, whose styles reveal three authors, writing at three different times.

The first section (1–11) contains a fanciful and dramatic circumstantial account of the trial of Jesus, based upon
Luke 23.

An appendix, detailing the
Descensus ad Infernos
was added to the Greek text. This legend of a "Harrowing of Hell" has chiefly flourished in Latin, and was translated into many European versions. It doesn't exist in the eastern versions, Syriac and Armenian, that derive directly from Greek versions. In it, Leucius and Charinus, the two souls raised from the dead after the Crucifixion, relate to the
Sanhedrin
the circumstances of Christ's descent to Limbo. (Leucius Charinus
is the traditional name to which many late apocryphal Acta
of Apostles is attached.)

Eusebius
(325), although he mentions an Acta Pilati
that had been referred to by Justin
and Tertullian
and other pseudo-Acts of this kind, shows no acquaintance with this work. Almost surely it is of later origin, and scholars agree in assigning it to the middle of the 4th century. Epiphanius
refers to an Acta Pilati
similar to this, as early as AD 376, but there are indications that the current Greek text, the earliest extant form, is a revision of an earlier one.

Justin the Martyr – The First and Second Apology of Justin Chapter 35–"And that these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate."

The Apology letters were written and addressed by name to the Roman Emperor
Pius
and the Roman Governor Urbicus. All three of these men lived between 138–161.

There is a
pseudepigrapha
letter reporting on the crucifixion, purporting to have been sent by Pontius Pilate to the Emperor Claudius, embodied in the pseudepigrapha known as the Acts of Peter and Paul, of which the
Catholic Encyclopedia
states, "This composition is clearly apocryphal though unexpectedly brief and restrained." There is no internal relation between this feigned letter and the 4th-century Acts of Pilate
(Acta Pilati).

The
Mors Pilati
("Death of Pilate") legend is a Latin tradition, thus treating Pilate as a monster, not a saint; it is attached usually to the more sympathetic Gospel of Nicodemus
of Greek origin. The narrative of the Mors Pilati
set of manuscripts is set in motion by an illness of Tiberius, who sends Volusanius
to Judaea to fetch the Christ for a cure. In Judaea Pilate covers for the fact that Christ has been crucified, and asks for a delay. But Volusanius encounters Veronica
who informs him of the truth but sends him back to Rome with her Veronica
of Christ's face on her kerchief, which heals Tiberius. Tiberius then calls for Pontius Pilate, but when Pilate appears, he is wearing the seamless robe of the Christ and Tiberius' heart is softened, but only until Pilate is induced to doff the garment, whereupon he is treated to a ghastly execution. His body, when thrown into the Tiber, however, raises such storm demons that it is sent to Vienne (via gehennae) in France and thrown to the
Rhone. That river's spirits reject it too, and the body is driven east into "Losania", where it is plunged in the bay of the lake near
Lucerne, near Mont Pilatus – originally
Mons Pileatus
or "cloud-capped", as John Ruskin
pointed out in Modern Painters—whence the uncorrupting corpse rises every Good Friday to sit on the bank and wash unavailing hands.

This version combined with anecdotes of Pilate's wicked early life were incorporated in
Jacobus de Voragine's
Golden Legend, which ensured a wide circulation for it in the later Middle Ages. Other legendary versions of Pilate's death exist:
Antoine de la Sale
reported from a travel in central Italy
on some local traditions asserting that after death the body of Pontius Pilate was driven to a little lake near Vettore Peak
(2478 m in the Sibillini Mountains) and plunged in. The lake, today, is still named
Lago di Pilato.

In the Cornish cycle of
mystery plays, the "death of Pilate" forms a dramatic scene in the
Resurrexio Domini
cycle. More of Pilate's fictional correspondence is found in the minor Pilate apocrypha, the Anaphora Pilati
(Relation of Pilate), an
Epistle of Herod to Pilate, and an
Epistle of Pilate to Herod, spurious texts that are no older than the 5th century.

Plays and films dealing with life of Jesus Christ often include the character of Pontius Pilate due to the central role he played in the final days of Christ's life. Writers have found various reasons to make Pilate a main character and to fill in any unknown details of his life. Pilate has been portrayed in a number of different ways:

Pilate appears in the
Mystery Plays
and Passion Plays, the most notable being in the Cornish cycle in which he is summoned to Rome by
Tiberius
and sentenced to death
for killing Jesus because this crime cannot be contained by earth, sea or water and so immediately proceeds (body and soul, rather than just soul) to hell.

In
Anatole France's short story
The Procurator of Judaea, Pilate has retired to
Sicily
to become a gentleman farmer. This story is an example of the "oblivious" interpretation of Pilate. He has forgotten everything about Jesus and the part that he (Pilate) played in his trial.

Pontius Pilate is portrayed in
Mikhail Bulgakov's
The Master and Margarita
as being ruthless, yet complex in his humanity; the novel describes his meeting with Jesus the Nazarene, his recognition of an affinity with and spiritual need for him, and his reluctant but resigned and passive handing over of him to those who wanted to kill him. Here Pilate exemplifies the statement "Cowardice is the worst of vices", and thus serves as a model, in an allegorical interpretation of the work, of all the people who have "washed their hands" by silently or actively taking part in the crimes committed by
Joseph Stalin.

This novel inspired
The Rolling Stones
1968 song "Sympathy for the Devil". The song's title and lyrics may have been derived from Bulgakov's portrayal of the Devil. Pilate is referenced in the verse: "I was around when Jesus Christ / had his moment of doubt and pain / made damn sure that Pilate / washed his hands, and sealed his fate".[45][46]
Due to Soviet censorship, the book was not fully published in Russian until 1966 and the first UK translation, by Michael Glenny, appeared in London in 1967.[47]
It was an immediate success d'estime
and a favourite of (Jagger's then girlfriend) Marianne Faithfull, who pressed a copy into Jagger's hands. Thus the timeline (and, to anyone familiar with the directions from which Culture passed into the Stones circle) seems likely.[original research?]

The Master and Margarita
and Pilate are also referred to in the Pearl Jam
song "Pilate", on the album
Yield.

In
Robert Graves's novel
King Jesus, Pilate is an unscrupulous opportunist who tries to prevent Jesus' death by convincing Jesus to become the King of the Jews (in reality a
puppet monarch
of Rome) because, in the novel, Jesus is the son of Mary, who is of a royal Jewish line and the daughter of the
last Hasmonean
and Antipater, the son of Herod the Great. Jesus refuses the offer because his kingdom "is not of this world". Pilate eventually grows exasperated and leaves him to die.

Pilate appears in three stories in
Karel Čapek's collection
Apocryphal Tales. In "Pilate's Evening", the weary governor wonders why Jesus' friends and relatives did not come to try and save him, and wishes that they had. "Pilate's Creed" features a dialogue between Pilate and
Joseph of Arimathea. Their argument reflects the conflict between
scepticalhumanism
(Pilate's famous "What is truth?") and religious certainty (Joseph's reply, "The truth in which I believe"). "The Crucifixion" features a world-weary Pilate disgusted with the political machinations that led to Jesus' condemnation.

In
Roger Caillois' short novel
Pontius Pilate
(1961), Pilate is portrayed as a vacillating colonial administrator who, during the day after Jesus' arrest, receives advice from his wife, from Judas Iscariot
and from a Chaldaean
friend who has amassed an immense knowledge of the world's various religions. In the end, he is shown as "a man who despite every hindrance succeeded in being brave".

Ann Wroe's
Pontius Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man
is an attempt to provide the obscure official with a biography suitable to the man who is so influential to the Christian story. **The Royal Shakespeare Company
debuted a performance piece called The Pilate Workshop
in the summer of 2004, which attempted to cast Wroe's research in the form of a mystery play.

Retired California politician
James R. Mills
wrote a novel titled Gospel According to Pontius Pilate
in 1978. Pilate is described as an ordinary, cynical politician whose primary concern is to keep the local population content and maintain social order, rather than particular sense of rightness. This view of Judas Iscariot is also featured in Taylor Caldwell's novel
I, Judas.

In the
rock operaJesus Christ Superstar, Pilate has three songs. In "Pilate's Dream", he foresees that history will mention his name and leave him the blame of Jesus' death. In the song "Pilate and Christ", an arrogant and mocking Pilate perhaps realizing manipulation by the Sanhedrin, tries to prevent Jesus' death by sending Jesus to Herod. "You're Herod's race! You're Herod's case!". In the song "Trial Before Pilate", a sympathetic Pilate pleads with Jesus to speak to him, saying that he believes the accused has "done no wrong" but "ought to be locked up" for insanity. Receiving no answer from the silent Jesus, Pilate eventually grows exasperated and tells him, "Die if you want to, you misguided
martyr."
Barry Dennen
played Pilate on the "Brown Album", on Broadway and in the 1973 film version of the musical, directed by Norman Jewison, with Fred Johanson taking the role in the 2000 revival, directed by
Gale Edwards.

The Collection of Short Stories
The Night Chicago Died
by Tom Wessex
contains a story entitled "An Afternoon on Skull Hill", in which the author supposes that
Gestas, one of the thieves crucified with Christ, was in fact Pilate's illegitimate son.

Pontius Pilate is mentioned in the drama
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller. Protagonist John Proctor yells "Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands of this!", to Reverend Hale as Proctor's wife is being arrested.

In Nicolas Notovith's "The Lost Years of Jesus" (1894) (an apocryphal Gospel he claims to have found in the
Leh
lamasery, Ladakh), Pilatus is seen as an evil man and the Jews as mild and compassionate.

In the 2004
Superman
storyline "For Tomorrow", a story with strong
messianic
themes, a priest dying of cancer (and a confidant of Superman) is transformed into a biological war machine, codenamed "Pilate", who rampages through a paradise dimension created by Superman. He retains enough of his humanity to regret his murders and sacrifices himself.

Hungarian psychologist
Péter Popper
wrote a novel in 1997 Peloni or the Testament of Pilate
in which Pilate portrays himself as a cultivated Roman bewildered by Judea and the Jews. Pilate experiences some of the divine power of Jesus and executes him on Jesus's own impulse.

Pilatus is the central figure in
The Karma Killers
a 2009 novel by Angelo Paratico.[48]
His birthplace is given at Bisenti in South Italy, where he retired meeting every Easter with Longinus in the nearby town of Lanciano.

The preface to
George Bernard Shaw's
On the Rocks
includes a dramatization of the meeting between Jesus and Pilate.

The 1927 silent epic,
The King of Kings
directed by Cecil B. DeMille
featured Victor Varconi
as Pilate, a Roman bewildered by the Jewish belief in the One God, who attempts to save Jesus but is ultimately thwarted by his own cowardice.

In the 1935 film
The Last Days of Pompeii, Pilate (played by
Basil Rathbone) is portrayed as a harried politician who, at first, sees the necessity of crucifying Jesus but becomes a man consumed with guilt reflecting on his judgment.

Also in 1951, Family Theater presented another TV film, as an episode of "A Triumphant Hour" – "Hill Number One". It featured
Leif Erickson
portraying Pilate as a belligerent administrator, rationalizing the necessity of sending Christ to the cross, yet confused by his wife, Claudia Procles
(a variant from ancient doctuments of "Procula", played by Joan Leslie), and her attraction to the dead
Nazarene.

In the 1952 "Studio One
- Pontius Pilate," Cyril Ritchard's Pilate is an ambitious politician married to the Emperor's daughter,
Claudia Procula
(Geraldine Fitzgerald). His life falls apart after Claudia leaves him to become a Christian. He spends the next several years vengefully hunting her down.

Richard Boone
played a calm and stern, though, slightly guilt-ridden Pilate in The Robe
(1953), wearied by the quarreling of "factions" surrounding his sentencing of Christ to the cross. His action in condemning Jesus is particularly singled out as unjust by the principal character Marcellus Gallio
(Richard Burton). An interesting touch is that he asks again to wash his hands, forgetting he'd done so at the conclusion of the trial of Jesus.

Frank Thring
portrayed a somewhat jaded though shrewd Pilate in Ben-Hur
(1959). He is a good friend of Judah Ben-Hur's Roman adoptive father, Quintus Arrius, but he reminds Ben-Hur that he wields the emperor's own authority to keep peace in Judea. He would go on to portray Herod Antipas
two years later for Nicholas Ray.

Hurd Hatfield
portrayed Pilate in Nicholas Ray's film
King of Kings
(1961). The film portrays an overtly militaristic Pilate – his caravan is attacked by Barabbas
and his followers in the movie – and he is also characterised as being vain, aloof, cynical and overly legalistic. He and his wife, Claudia Procula
(Viveca Lindfors), are also shown as having an interest in the life and actions of Jesus before his trial and crucifixion.

1961 saw the release of
Barabbas, in which the murderer and revolutionary (Anthony Quinn) is pardoned in place of Christ by a cynically amused Pilate
Arthur Kennedy
who is perfectly aware that he is releasing the wrong man. Pilate is equally confident that Barabbas will be arrested once more.

Again in 1961, came George Schaefer's television production of
Give Us Barabbas
for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. While different from the Anthony Quinn movie, it covers much the same ground.
Dennis Kingplays
Pilate as an older, coldly, world-weary aristocrat condemned by the Emperor to keep the peace in the least sophisticated backwater of the Roman Empire. To him the condemnation of Jesus is just another crucifixion in a land that, for him, isn't worthy of being a province of the Empire.

Rod Steiger
portrayed Pilate in Franco Zeffirelli's TV miniseries
Jesus of Nazareth
(1977). In this version, Though quite intelligent, Pilate is angered by Jesus' refusal to defend himself. After condemning Jesus to death, Pilate is told by one of his aides that he cannot release Barabbas, "an assassin and enemy of Rome." Pilate replies, "I wonder...Who is the real enemy?" In Anthony Burgess's novel
Man of Nazareth, based on
Jesus of Nazareth, Pilate is portrayed as being more sympathetic towards Jesus, recognising the validity of his doctrine and even telling Jesus he is free to go, although Jesus tells Pilate he has to condemn him to death.

The 1980 TV film,
The Day Christ Died
based on Jim Bishop's best selling book, featured
Keith Michell
as Pilate politically aligned with Caiphas
(Colin Blakely) working with him to rid the land of Jesus.
Hope Lange
portrayed Claudia. Bishop's family demanded the elimination of the Catholic journalist's name from the production because the script strayed so far away from his book's narrative.

The 1986 film
The Inquiry
has Harvey Keitel
portraying Pilate as a suspicious, nervous yet ruthless bureaucrat, certain that Titus Valerius Taurus (Keith Carradine) has been sent by
Tiberius
to investigate him rather than the possibility of the Resurrection of Christ.

In the 1999 film
Jesus, Pilate is played by
Gary Oldman
as a cynical manipulator of the events surrounding Christ's death, in an effort to overawe the locals.

In the 2000 remake of
Jesus Christ Superstar
for video, Pilate was played by Dutch-born actor Fred Johanson. Johanson's portrayal was different from Dennen's, as he was portrayed as a more
Nazi-style macho figure, the costume utilized was noted by critics to be similar to that of
Street Fighter
villain M. Bison.

In the animated film
The Miracle Maker,
Ian Holm
voices Pilate. He is a stern figure, with a dislike for the Jews and respect for a tribune (Lennie James) who has overseen the crucifixion of several hundred of them. However, he is reluctant to put Jesus to death after meeting him and is only moved to do so after Caiaphas (David Schofield) warns him that Rome will see him as a traitor for protecting this so-called Messiah.

The Final Inquiry
is the 2006 remake of The Inquiry. In this storyline,
Hristo Shopov
reprises his role as Pilate, but with a much darker strain. He colludes with the High Priest in an attempt to cover up the Resurrection by attempting to convince Taurus (Daniele Liotti) it was all a sham.

Greg Hicks
plays the role of Pilate in the 2013 televisionminiseriesThe Bible
as a stern and ruthless governor determined to keep the peace in Judea. This version of Pilate, fearing that Tiberius Caesar
would blame him for any uprisings, massacres mobs of Jewish dissenters and threatens the Jewish religious authorities that he will cancel Passover and institute Martial law in Jerusalem if disturbances continue, thus pushing them to persecute Jesus in order to avoid even more bloodshed. In turn, he feels pushed to accede to the demands of Caiphas
to have Jesus crucified despite his wife's warnings of the disturbing dreams she's had which convince her that Jesus is an innocent man. While he feels Jesus has too high an opinion of himself and is shown to be both a brutal governor and rabidly bigoted against the Jews, Pilate is uneasy about the persecution of Christ. He is initially hesitant toward applying a Roman punishment to a man who has committed no crime under Roman law, and even seems perturbed that the Jews would choose to release Barabbas over the preacher.

Jump up
^H. H. Ben-Sasson,
A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976,
ISBN 0-674-39731-2, page 246: "When
Archelaus
was deposed from the ethnarchy in 6 AD, Judea proper, Samaria and Idumea were converted into a Roman province under the name Iudaea."

Jump up
^"Procurator". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved
April 15,
2014.
From a recently discovered inscription in which Pontius Pilate is mentioned, it appears that the title of the governors of Judea was also "praefectus".